Dispenser for concentrates and the like



March 19, 1957 c. c. BAUERLEIN DISPENSER FOR CONCENTRATEIS AND THE LIKE 2 Shets-Sheet 1 Filed May 31 1951 March 19, 1957 c. c. BAUERLEIN 2,785,330

DISPENSER FOR CONCENTRATES AND THE LIKE Filed May 31 195l 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 020 i ffiaraezgzqzzz United States Patent DISPENSER FOR CONCENTRATES AND THE LHKE Carl C. Bauerlein, Mulrwonago, Wis, assignor to The Dole Valve Company, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Illinois Application May 31, 1951, Serial No. 229,121 4 Claims. (Cl. 22257) This invention relates to dispensers for diluting and dispensing fluids or concentrates, such as concentrated juices, malts, liquors, colas, flavors and the like.

It is an object of my invention to provide a novel and improved form of mixing and dispensing valve having no moving parts and operable to dispense a fluid of one consistency. by the flow of a diluting fluid through the valve under pressure.

Another object of my invention is to provide an eflicient form of dispensing valve of a simplified and novel construction and arrangement wherein the concentrate or fluid is dispensed and mixed with water by the aspirating action of the water under presure passing through a throat of a Venturi.

A further object of my invention is to provide a novel and simple form of a dispensing valve for concentrates or fluids wherein the control of the flow of the concentrateor fluid is. attained by the flow of diluting water through the valve as the water passes through a vacuum chamber on the downstream side of the throat of a Venturi.

A still further object of my invention is to provide a new and improved form of mixing and dispensing valve utilizing the flow of diluting water to draw a concentrate or fluid from its container and utilizing a flexible wafer to prevent leakage of the concentrate or fluid from the container when the flow of diluting water through the valve is cut oil.

A still further object of my invention is to provide a new and improved form of dispensing valve for high specific gravity liquids having a resilient wafer type check valve at the top of the valve body to prevent leakage of the liquid through the valve body by the head on the liquid and utilizing a vacuum chamber on the downstream side of the throat of a Venturi to aspirate the liquid through the valve.

Another and more detailed object of my invention is to provide an eflicient form of dispensing and mixing valve for concentrates or fluids made from a transparent insulating material with all the passageways of the valve readily exposed to view and controlling the flow of the concentrate or fluid for mixture with water, entirely by the flow of the mixing and diluting water through the valve.

These and other objects of my invention will appear from time to time as the following specification proceeds and with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein "ice Figure 5 is an enlarged sectional View taken along line V-V of Figure 3.

In Figure 1 of the drawings, I have shown a portion of a dispenser for diluting and dispensing various types of concentrates or fluids, such as concentrated vegetable juices and fruit juices, malts, liquors, colas, flavors and the like, and particularly adapted to dilute concentrates to the normal consistency of the juice of the fresh natural fruit and delivering a cool uniformly mixed juice for drinking purposes. The dispenser may include a casing 10 having a container or tank 11 for the concentrate or fluid, mounted therein adjacent the upper portion thereof and open at the top thereof. The tank 11 may be of a generally cylindrical form closed by a cover 12 and having a sloping bottom 13, gradually sloping to an opening 14 for a diluting and mixing valve 15.

As herein shown, the opening 14 is formed by a depending collar 16 forming an open-ended valve chamber and depending from the bottom of the tank. The depending collar 16 has an inwardly turned frusto-conical lower end portion 17 engaging the bottom of the valve 15 and holding it in place (Figure 2).

The tank 11 may be cooled by a refrigerating coil 19 and may be made from a corrosion-resistant material, such as stainless steel, which besides resisting corrosion of highly acid fruit juices, also acts as a conductor of cold, to maintain the juice cool, when the refrigerating unit is shut off. The tank 11 is formed to be free from all shoulders or recesses where bacteria may breed and the temperature of the concentrate is maintained sufiiciently low to prevent the breeding of bacteria therein by the refrigerating coil 19, encircling said tank.

The casing 10 may also have a compressor, motor and condenser (not shown) for a refrigerating unit, which may be contained therein and may be connected to the refrigerating coil 19, to maintain the juice concentrate at the proper temperature, a desirable temperature being in the neighborhood of 22 F., although the concentrate may be maintained at higher or lower temperatures as long as it will flow relatively freely and is sufliciently cold to prevent the breeding of bacteria. It should here be understood that the freezing temperature of the concentrate is much lower than that of water, the freezing temperature of many concentrated fruit juices being as low as 18 F.

A supply pipe 20 for diluting'water may enter the casing 10 through a wall thereof (not shown) and may extend through said casing to a position adjacent the top of the cooling coil 19. The pipe 20 may then be coiled around the outside of said coil, in spaced relation with respect thereto, as indicated by reference character 21. The supply pipe 20 is shown a being connected at its delivery end with a constant volume solenoid operated delivery valve 23. The valve 23 may be a solenoid controlled fluid pressure operated valve of a well known form of diaphragm type, and is not herein shown or described in detail except insofar as to show a fitting 24 threaded within the discharge outlet of the valve, and having an annular flow control member 25 contained therein. The flowcontrol member 25 is seated in an annular recessed portion 26 of the fitting 24. Various flow control members may be substituted for the member '25 to control the flow of Water through the valve, so that the valve may deliver the required volume of diluting water at the desired pressure. The flow control member 25 is shown as being a resilient flow control washer,

similar to that shown and described in Patent No.-'

' -34 is provided the apertures 44, 44;.

the 'fitting'24' and is connected at its discharge end to a pipe 33 extending outwardly from the. collar'16 and communicating with the inside of said collar. 'A'coupling pipe 33.

"'The mixing anddispensing valve is herein shown to secure the end of the pipe 31 to the and be-retained therein by the frusto-c'onical lower end portion 17 thereof, abutted by a corresponding-lower face of said valve body. "The valve body 36 is preferably transparent and may be molded or formed from one of the well known thermoplastic materials, or from glass; One suchthermoplastic material may be"Lucite, which not only exposes the passageways in the valve .to view, but also acts as an insulator and inhibitsfreezing of the water. 2

f T he valve body'56 is shown asjhaving an annular passageway39 extending therearound and opening to the periphery thereof and communicating with the pipe 33, for conducting water under pressureinto ,and through the valve body. Sealingrings 40, 40 maybe providedv on opposite sides of the annular passageway 39, to retain water in said passageway and to prevent the leakage of water along the side walls of the valve body 36. Said sealing rings may be of. any well known form of flexible 'sealingringjmade from rubber or an elastomer, as long as the rings and recessesin the wall of the valve body for the rings are so construgted that they may readily be cleanedjand will not harbor the breedinglof bacteria.

"The valve .body 3 61s shown as havingits top face s d i t y be ow th bot m of th tank Ha ash'aving aconcentrate. chamber 41 'lrecessed therein and opening to the top thereof. "A cage'42 of a check valve 43 is shown as being recessed in the top of said chamber and suitably sealedltothe wall thereof. The cage 42 has a plurality of flow; apertures 44, 44. opening through the bottom thereof. Flow apertures'45, 45 are provided in theside Wallthereof, to assurecomplete scavenging of theconcentrated juice from the bottom of'the tank :11.

. The check valve is herein shown as being a flexible Wafer 46 which may be made fromrubber or'an ,elastome 7 The wafer 46 has a plurality of'nibs 47,47. extending upwardly therefromf through certain of theapertures in the bottom of the cage 42 and: retaining said,

wafer to the bottom of said cage. As herein showm the nihs47, 47 are diametrically aligned and allow the wafer to hex downwardly on opposite sides of the centers thereof, to allow the flow of concentrate through the apertures '44, 44 and 45, 45. The bottom of the cage 42, abutting the Wafer 46 is convex and said wafer has' sufficient fier-;i

bility to normally, engage the convex bottom of the cage 4 chamber 53 regardless of changes in viscosity thereof due to the proportioning of different forms. of con- ,centratesor to variations in the viscosity of the concone-like passageway leads from the vacuurn-charnber 53 and communicates with a downwardly extending inclined passageway 66, opening to the bottom of the valve body 36. As herein shown, a-spout or nozzle, 61 is se-f V cured to and depends from a depending portion 63 of the valve body 36, to direct the mixed and diluted cona centrate for dischargeinto a'dr'inking glass or-other suitablecontainer. V

When' the tank 11 has concentrate therein, andi'water from the valve 23' enters the valve .body, '36 at a predetermined generally constant pressure governed by the valve 23, through the annular passageway 39, the vel city of the water flowing through the throat 5410f the'Venturi' 55 will increase with a resultant drop infpressure'at the downstream side of said throat,.a'nd create avacuum in the vacuum chamber 53. This will draw the wafer 46 downwardly and open the check valve 43. The vacuum in the vacuum chamber 53 will thus aspirate the concfe'ng trate from the tank 11, mixing it with the water and discharging it through" the spout '61, diluted to the con= sistency of the juice of the fresh fruit.

, The flow of Water from the water valve 23 may be regulated by the flow control member 25 to' mix 4 /2 7 ounces of water withl /z ounces of wncentrate and deliver sixounces of diluted juicehintsixgseconds. "This may he attained with a delivery pressure ofthe water of around 10 pounds per square inchas it leaves theflow control washer, 25. ,Waterentering the passageway 56 under" a pressure of around, 12 pounds per square inch will'create" a vacuum in the vacuum chamber 53 of substantially 17 inches of mercury, which is suff cient to scavenge, 'thetank "'11 dry, when desired. It should, of coursegbe under- .7 pressures.

42 and prevent the leaking ofconcentrate therethrough by gravity, butto 'fiex upon the reduction inpressure in the chamber 41 and allow The concentrate chamber '41' communicates with a a generally cylindrical outlet 49 at the bottom thereof having a generally frusto-conical bottom portion 50 terthedianieter of the throat ofthe Venturi to assure the free iiow of, concentrate into thejvacuu'rn chamber by the increased. velocityjof the water flowing therethrough as. it; leaves gthe throat of the'venturin The knife-edge orifice 51 is provided to reducethe surface tension of i the relatively" heavyyviscous' concentrate andto accommo at the con entratelq ts ly .flow intoQthe vacuum the concentraterto pass through V it has also been found that with suflicient vacuum in the vacuum chamber 53, the head pressure of the concentrate in the tank willin no way affect the flow of the con-' 'centrate from the tank, and that the flow of concentrate will be substantially uniform fromthe top to'the bottom .7

of the tank as the head decreases. 7

It has also been found that variations in incoming pressure of the water have very littleeflect on avariation'of the mixture of the concentrate andthat with, changes in incoming pressure of around 2 5.%, the variation infthe Brix reading of the diluted concentrate is sligh-t and is far better thairtheaallowable requirements.

. It has further'been found that, although the apertures 7' 44, 44 in the cage .42 are relatively smalh with ,the abovementioned vacuum the vacuum chamber 53,.or even with water pressure as low as 8 pounds per square inch, and a vacuum of 15 inches of mercury, fruitsacks will be extruded through these apertures past the-check valve 43, and mixed with the flowing water withoutploga ging the check or mixing'valves. Satisfa'ctory'results may I also be attained with loweripressures byvaryingthe sizeof the passageways and particularly the vacuum chamber-'53. It may also be noted'that if desired. he: valve may be cleaned-without removing-from thetank l l gbyltllling the tank with a detergent and water'and aspiratingxthe ,o' th tank 11 by opening the water valve 23. a 1 V "It should: also be noted 1111311116 valve hodyu36-isninade from a transparent mateiial, suchz;as Lu,c,iteV,..or g1ass which, besides being transparent and rendering all of the passageways open to view, to permit ready cleaning thereof, also acts as an insulator and inhibits freezing of the water or concentrate in the passageways therein. It should be understood, however, that while the valve body is shown and preferably described as being transparent and made from plastic or glass, it need not be transparent and may be made from other materials as well.

It will be understood that modifications and variations may be efiected without departing from the spirit and scope of the novel concepts of the present invention.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a device for proportioning a liquid of relatively heavy viscosity with a liquid of relatively light viscosity and dispensing the proportioned liquids as a liqud mxture of predetermined proportions, a body member, a first inlet passageway in said body converging in a downstream direction and having a restricted throat, an outlet passageway extending in the same direction as said first inlet passageway and joining said throat, said outlet passageway having a larger cross-sectional area at said junction than the cross-sectional area of said throat, a second inlet passageway in said body member communicating with said portion of said outlet passageway of larger crosssectional area than said throat, adjacent the junction of said outlet passageway to said throat, and said second inlet passageway having a portion of relatively large crosssectional area and having an orifice in communication with said outlet passageway through the wall thereof of relatively small cross-sectional area, the portion of said inlet passageway defining said orifice being of a substantially shorter axial length than any radial measurement of said orifice.

2. In a device for proportioning a liquid of relatively heavy viscosity with a liquid of relatively light viscosity and dispensing the proportioned liquids as a liquid mixture of predetermined proportions, a body member, a first inlet passageway in said body member converging in a downstream direction and having a restricted throat, an outlet passageway extending in the same direction as said first inlet passageway and joining said throat, said outlet passageway having a larger cross-sectional area at the junction of said outlet passageway with said throat than the cross-sectional area of said throat, a source of liquid under pressure having communication with said first inlet passageway, a second inlet passageway in said body member communicating with said portion of said outlet passageway through a wall thereof, adjacent the junction of said outlet passageway with said throat, a source of liquid of relatively heavy viscosity in communication with said second nlet passageway, and said second inlet passageway having a portion of relatively large cross-sectional area converging toward its downstream end and having an orifice at its downstream end of relatively smaller cross-sectional area than said portion of relatively large cross-sectional area, the portion of said second inlet passageway defining said orifice being of a shorter axial length than one-half of any radial measurement of said orifice.

3. In a device for proportioning a liquid of relatively heavy viscosity with a liquid of relatively light viscosity and dispensing the proportioned liquid as a liquid mixture of predetermined proportions, a body member, a

first inlet passageway leading into said body member and having a portion converging in a downstream direction into a restricted throat, an outlet passageway extending in the same direction as said inlet passageway and joining said throat, said outlet passageway having a portion of larger cross-sectional area at its junction with said throat than the cross-sectional area of said throat, a second inlet passageway in said body member communicating with said outlet passageway through a wall thereof adjacent the junction of said outlet passageway with said throat, a source of liquid of heavy viscosity in communication with said second inlet passageway, said second inlet passageway having a portion of relatively large crosssectional area converging toward its downstream end into a knife-edge orifice, a source of supply of liquid of light viscosity under pressure in communication with said first inlet, and uniform rate of flow control means providing a uniform rate of flow of liquid of light viscosity into said first inlet and providing a substantially uniform vacuum and fiow of liquid of heavy viscosity regardless of variations in head of the liquid of heavy viscosity.

4. In a device for proportioning a liquid of relatively heavy viscosity with a liquid of relatively light viscosity and dispensing the proportioned liquid as a liquid mixture of predetermined proportions, a body member, a first inlet passageway leading into said body member converging in a downstream direction to a restricted throat, a vacuum chamber on the downstream side of said throat, an outlet passageway leading from said vacuum chamber, said vacuum chamber having a larger cross-sectional area than the cross-sectional area of said throat, a source of proportioning liquid under pressure in communication with said inlet passageway and having a uniform rate of flow control device on the upstream side of said inlet passageway assuring a uniform rate of flow of proportioning liquid regardless of variations in pressure of the liquid at the source, a second inlet passageway in said body having communication with said vacuum chamber through a wall thereof, a source of supply of liquid of relatively heavy viscosity having communication with said second inlet passageway, said second inlet passageway having an inlet portion of relatively large crosssectional area and having a converging wall defining at its downstream end a knife-edge orifice of relatively small cross-sectional area.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 813,254 Sweeney Feb. 20, 1906 1,826,829 Scott Oct. 13, 1931 1,971,013 Mesinger Aug. 21, 1934 2,077,024 Tanner Apr. 13, 1937 2,093,408 Batterson Sept. 21, 1937 2,288,297 Naiman June 30, 1942 2,381,589 Hayes Aug. 7, 1945 2,429,984 Berglund Nov. 4, 1947 2,433,977 Bentley Jan. 6, 1943 2,528,422 Chase Oct. 31, 1950 2,579,855 Pockel Dec. 25, 1951 2,625,176 Williams Jan. 13, 1953 2,677,389 Iisha May 4, 1954 

